Nettles
by watchitstark
Summary: This wasn't going to work out, it couldn't. But at least they had a week. For the Deadly Poison or a Common Cure? A Crack Pairing/Potion Ingredient Challenge. I fiddled with their ages because I know that in canon they wouldn't be at Hogwarts together. BL/LP femslash.


**Challenge:** Deadly Poison or a Common Cure? A Crack Pairing/Potion Ingredient Challenge!  
**Challenger:** Screaming Faeries  
**Pairing:** Bellatrix Lestrange (Black)/Lily Potter (Evans)  
**Prompt:** Nettles

"Bella, don't shut me out," Lily tried, following as Bella hurried across the sloping lawns of the castle, dappled with the dying sunlight.

"Go back, I don't want to see you!" she yelled back over her shoulder, not stopping as they drew closer to the lake.

"Tell me what's wrong!" she demanded, reaching out to catch the older girl's arm.

"If you're going to hang around in a patch of nettles then you have to expect to get stung," she said shortly, drawing to a stop reluctantly.

"Bella, this is our last week to get to spend any time together, why ruin that?"

"I'm not, I'm just getting used to what it's going to be like from now on."

"What's got into you? Did one of your Death Eater friends talk to you?" Lily questioned, frustrated with her behaviour.

"No, it's not that I just... It's going to be hard enough that I'm not coming back to Hogwarts, let alone the fact that I'm going to lose my best friend."

"You know that I'll try to keep in contact with you any way I can? I'll sneak out for you," she laughed.

"While I appreciate the sentiment I'm afraid that it won't be necessary," the dark haired witch said stiffly, treating Lily as though they had not been best friends for two years, as though she was not aware of the tension between them, the intense looks and the lingering touches.

"You can't just _decide_ to shut me out I don't know whether you've noticed but that's not really how feelings work," she sighed. "Just talk to me."

Bella finally turned to look at her, her face stony but her eyes were swimming with tears. "We have to pretend that this never happened, that we weren't friends for years, that we didn't spend so much time together."

"Why? I know about the Death Eaters and their anti-Muggleborn agenda, that much is obvious, but surely being friends with one girl for a few years when you were young isn't going to affect your standing with them?"

"It's not that, not quite," she struggled with her words for a long moment, gazing at the younger girl with sad eyes. "It's more the fact that I feel, well... I feel a lot more for you than I necessarily should. And falling in love with a Muggleborn? Unacceptable."

"You... Love me?" Lily questioned, hardly believing.

"Obviously," she said, taking her turn to be frustrated. "How could I not?"

"But you never said anything. Why tell me now, when I just know that we've wasted time we could have had?"

"Because I was trying to spare you, and I was trying to spare myself. You're a Muggleborn and two potentially high ranking Death Eaters are in love with you, that makes you rather more significant than I would have ever wished on you."

"I don't care Bella, and you knew that I wouldn't care about whether he made me a target or not!"

"I know, I've always known that you wouldn't care, but _I_ care, I can't lose you."

"You're losing me anyway!" she argued. "You're trying so hard to protect me that you're going to lose me one way or another."

"It's not like we can elope," Bella exclaimed, exasperated.

"Give me the next week," she said quietly, looking intently at the older girl. "I can survive the rest of my life if you give me the next week."

"I don't want to," she sighed. "I don't want to spend this week falling further in love with you just to say goodbye."

"We have to, it's the way the cards have been dealt, it's the way that our life has ended up working out, and at least for now a week is all we have."

"But why set ourselves up for such unhappiness, you're back in the nettles and you never even noticed."

"They're not nettles if they're bittersweet," she smiled softly. "The week will be something to hold onto, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed even quieter, tears finally making tracks down her cheeks.

Lily put a hand to her face and pulled her in, kissing her softly. "A week to learn everything about you that I can, a week to spend every waking moment with you, a week to make sure you know how much I love you."

"Of course I know," she sighed and pulled her closer, kissing her again.


End file.
